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Cassidy Riley
|birth_place = Monroe, Louisiana | death_date = | death_place = |resides = West Monroe, Louisiana |billed = New Orleans, Louisiana |trainer = Lolly Dude Terry Taylor Tommy Rogers |debut = 1995 |retired = }} Cassidy O'Reilly (November 21, 1976) is an American professional wrestler, also known as Cassidy Reilly, Cassidy O'Riley, Kassidy James and Cassidy Riley best known for his work with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment and Global Force Wrestling. Early career O'Reilly began his career in the NWA Mississippi promotion and won the NWA Southern Television Championship on June 5, 1999. While holding the title he also worked for the Nashville-based promotion Music City Wrestling. While there he formed a tag team with Air Paris and on August 14 they defeated Ashley Hudson and Corey Williams for the vacant MCW Tag Team Championships. They would eventually split up when Paris got signed to World Championship Wrestling WCW In 2000 WCW began a talent exchange program with Bert Prentice who was running the promotion that O'Reilly was working for at the time. O'Reilly would work in WCW for a year and half. Alongside James Storm and Chris Harris, He became a member of "R & B Security", which were a group of jobbers who were billed as the bodyguards of Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff. They would be involved with one-sided confrontations with the bigger stars of Nitro and Thunder. The only time O'Reilly would make an appearance on the big stage was at the start of the Mike Awesome and DDP as a medic in the back of the ambulance. TNA O'Reilly formed a new tag team with Chase Stevens known as "The Hotshots". The Hotshots worked in Nashville before appearing with the fledgling NWA:TNA promotion in July 2002, when they were signed to full-time contracts. Following a feud with America's Most Wanted, the team split in October 2002 when O'Reilly left TNA due to travel problems, returning to Louisiana and taking a hiatus from wrestling. O'Reilly returned to TNA in 2004 as "Cassidy Riley", with his earlier appearances never acknowledged by the promotion. He was booked as a fan favorite underdog who regularly lost to physically more powerful villains. Riley faced Raven on the January 21, 2005 episode of TNA Impact!, and was promptly squashed, with Raven passing on several chances to pin him before finally pinning Riley and then casually breaking two of his fingers after the match. Riley was saved by Dustin Rhodes, who he subsequently developed an onscreen friendship with. Riley teamed with Rhodes on several occasions until Rhodes left the company, then resumed his singles career. On July 8, 2005, Riley was squashed by the number one contender to the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, Abyss. After Abyss continued to attack O'Reilly after pinning him, Raven (the reigning champion) ran to ringside and attacked Abyss, but was overpowered. The following week, Riley thanked Raven and told him that he would be there if Raven needed him. On July 17 at TNA No Surrender 2005, Riley was seen in the audience dressed in Raven's signature "grunge" style. His continued emulation of Raven's dress style and mannerisms made him a target for Raven's enemies, Jeff Jarrett and Rhino, who attacked him on the July 29 episode of Impact!. Raven interrupted the proceedings, however, and spared Riley a piledriver at the hands of Rhino. At TNA Sacrifice 2005 on August 14, Riley interfered in the main event tag team match, preventing Jeff Jarrett from hitting Raven with a guitar. At TNA Unbreakable on September 11, he faced Jerrelle Clark in a free-for-all match which ended in an abrupt draw when Monty Brown entered the ring and attacked both men. Later that night, Riley attempted to help Raven during his NWA World Heavyweight Championship title match with Rhino, but inadvertently distracted the referee just as Raven went for a pinfall. In the weeks prior to Bound for Glory pay-per-view, Raven appeared to accept Riley as his follower. On the Saturday prior to Bound For Glory, Riley appeared on Impact! and stated that Raven would be attending the event. The following evening, he accompanied Raven to the ring for his confrontation with Rhino, and was Gored twice by Rhino as security attempted to separate Raven and Rhino. On the December 4 episode of Impact! Raven was booked in a three-on-one handicap "House of Fun" match against all three members of the Diamonds in the Rough - Simon Diamond, David Young, and Elix Skipper. This was part of Larry Zbyszko's personal crusade to convince Raven to sign his release from TNA. Raven was heavily beaten for several minutes before Riley came to his aid, and held off the Diamonds in the Rough for a few moments. Eventually, the numbers overwhelmed him, but he had given Raven an opening that enabled him to take control of the match momentarily. Ultimately, however, Raven was defeated. Riley continued to aid Raven until Zbyszko finally managed to oust him from the promotion at TNA Final Resolution 2006 on January 15. Riley came to the ring and remonstrated with Zbyszko until Raven signalled for him to drop the issue and left the building. Riley departed from TNA in early 2007. WWE O'Reilly made his first appearance on WWE television as a jobber on the ECW brand where, as Cassidy Riley, he was defeated by fellow TNA alumnus Marcus Cor Von (formerly TNA's Monty Brown) on January 16, 2007. Two nights later, it was announced that he had signed a developmental contract with WWE and would be reporting to Ohio Valley Wrestling. On March 20, 2007, O'Reilly was on ECW again, he lost to Snitsky. On May 5, 2007 O'Reilly appeared in his first OVW match as his new gimmick as Kassidy James, the little brother of OVW/WWE wrestler K.C. James. On June 29, 2007 The James Boys defeated the Major Brothers to re-capture the OVW Southern Tag Team Championships. They then lost the belts on August 1 to the team of T.J. Dalton and Jamin Olivencia. On August 24, they regained the titles, defeating Olivencia in a handicap match. After again losing the titles to Steve Lewington and Chet the Jet on September 5, they regained the titles for the fourth time three weeks later. He was released from the WWE along with five other developmental wrestlers on February 4, 2008. Global Force Wrestling (2015) On May 11, 2015, Riley was announced as part of the roster of the Global Force Wrestling (GFW) promotion. Personal life Cassidy grew up in Oak Grove, Louisiana. In Wrestling *'Finishing and signature moves' *''Superkick'' *'Nicknames' *The Original Hot Shot Championships and accomplishments *National Wrestling Association :*Ring Warriors Global Tag Team Championship (1 time w/ Wes Brisco) :*NWA North American Tag Team Championship (1 time w/ Air Paris as "The Hot Shots") :*NWA Southern Television Championship *Music City Wrestling :*MCW North American Tag Team Championship (1 time w/ Air Paris) *Ohio Valley Wrestling :*OVW Southern Tag Team Champion (3 times as Kassidy James w/ KC James as The James Boys) External links * Cassidy Riley on CageMatch.net * Cassidy Riley on Twitter * Profile Category:1976 births Category:1995 debuts Category:American wrestlers Category:Louisiana wrestlers Category:Crossfire Wrestling alumni Category:Memphis Wrestling alumni Category:Music City Wrestling alumni Category:National Wrestling Alliance alumni Category:NWA Main Event alumni Category:Pro Wrestling Syndicate current roster Category:Ring Warriors alumni Category:Showtime All-Star Wrestling alumni Category:Total Nonstop Action Wrestling alumni Category:United States Wrestling Organization alumni Category:Ohio Valley Wrestling alumni Category:World Championship Wrestling alumni Category:World Wrestling Council alumni Category:World Wrestling Entertainment alumni Category:WrestleCon alumni Category:Living people Category:Male wrestlers Category:Warriors 4 Christ Wrestling alumni Category:Global Force Wrestling alumni